Cat Cdma Promotion

[Somnambulist]

I've just decided to move to a place with no landlines and have been reading other threads about CAT cdma. There are some very dissatisfied posters but the opposite as well. A friend of mine has it and loves it, says it even works well in a moving vehicle between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. My fiancee tells me that Tesco Lotus on the superhighway in Chiang Mai is going to have a big sale of CAT cdma gear Oct 3 - 5. Is there anything I should know about competing products or soon to be obsolete gear before I plunk down my money?

Also, is this a nationwide sale?

A related question - Someone today mentioned True satellite internet to me. Is this worth considering?

[keeniau96]

The CAT CDMA service is very good IF YOU ARE IN GOOD RECEPTION AREA. Only way to tell is to use the actual CAT equipment in the actual location you will have it ... even a small move can have large impact on the reception. CAT policy is that you can buy and check out the installation on same-day basis, with full refund if returned by 1600 (4PM) on same day. Here on Phuket the CAT staff are very helpful in both front office and with tech service.

Receiver/transmit units other than the actual ones used by CAT will almost certainly not work due to the very specific tuning and internal firmware modifications made by CAT. This equipment is the same as that used by Sprint in the USA. You can get alternative routers and antennas but the RT has to be from CAT.

[fremmel]

I've been using the CAT CDMA for about a year now and have been quite satisfied for what it is. Unfortunately I'm too far out to use the EVDO so I'm stuck with the slow option that only gives me 16KBps max download speed. And the signal where I am is so weak I have to use an external antenna.

But for surfing it's not a lot slower than when I had TOT ADSL and there's almost never a service outage. Of course downloads are pretty slow but the system doesn't reset very often so I can usually get 200MB downloads even though it takes 4 hours.

[samuijimmy]

I too, have the CAT service, M727 and very happy with it... I always find Cat Service Centre on Samui good too... Your local CAT store should be able to tell you if it will work in the area you want.

I have attached a two foot USB line to the unit and find I always get 4 to 5 (full signal.... you need to find a "lady / lady" USB connector to do that...) Before I did that, the signal strength was "3 to 4" but certainly good for what I do...

I've also taken it on trips in Thailand, with Laptop & have been surprised it actually works in fairly remote areas.... As the previous writer said get it and try it for a day!

My neighbours use TOT... seems like nothing but problems & down time... for days sometimes

[Somnambulist]

Hey, thanks everybody. Very helpful info. I called CAT in Chiang Mai today to ask whether my new address might be functional with cdma and was advised to go to the Komtien (Superhighway) Tesco/Lotus between now and the 20th of Oct because they have a booth with testing equipment, whatever that means. I'll find out tomorrow. BTW, the Chiang Mai number is 053 261 178 and takes you straight to an English speaker, no voicemail "firewall" .

Previously, I called the national hotline and was quoted 7,990 baht for something? Will let you know what I learn.

[Somnambulist]

Another question - If I test the unit at the actual location and get a poor but existing signal, can I assume that with an external antennae it'll be significantly better?

Conversely, if I test it and get absolutely nothing at all, should I assume that installing an external antennae would be pointless? tia

[thaimite]

Another question - If I test the unit at the actual location and get a poor but existing signal, can I assume that with an external antennae it'll be significantly better?

Conversely, if I test it and get absolutely nothing at all, should I assume that installing an external antennae would be pointless? tia

Without an external aerial I get 1 bar and the basic service, but with the aerial I get a full 5 bar signal and about 1.6Mb/s download on the EVDO so it is definately worth the extra money. The aerial is outside my window aon about 20ft of bamboo pole. As it is not a heavy unit only like a smal TV antenna it is quiet sufficient

Even if you have 0 signal it may improve it enough to get you a reasonable reception. I got the installer to come and put the aerial up on a temporary basis to see it worked before parting with a lot of money

[Somnambulist]

Another question - If I test the unit at the actual location and get a poor but existing signal, can I assume that with an external antennae it'll be significantly better?

Conversely, if I test it and get absolutely nothing at all, should I assume that installing an external antennae would be pointless? tia

Without an external aerial I get 1 bar and the basic service, but with the aerial I get a full 5 bar signal and about 1.6Mb/s download on the EVDO so it is definately worth the extra money. The aerial is outside my window aon about 20ft of bamboo pole. As it is not a heavy unit only like a smal TV antenna it is quiet sufficient

Even if you have 0 signal it may improve it enough to get you a reasonable reception. I got the installer to come and put the aerial up on a temporary basis to see it worked before parting with a lot of money

That's a great idea. Was your installer a CAT employee? I'm assuming not but that's OK because I have the number of a guy who can do it.

[fremmel]

Here the signal is so weak I would only get 1 bar sometimes and basically couldn't use the service. With the antenna I get 3 or 4 bars out of 4 and even with just 3 bars I can still get full download speed - but again, that's pretty slow on the basic service.

External antenna installation isn't anything too complex. I bought mine for 900 or 1,000 baht at the CAT office from the woman that signed me up. The receipt for it wasn't a regular CAT receipt so I think she has a little side business.

It's a very light weight yagi style directional antenna. I used the included clamp to attach it to a 3 meter stick of 1" galvanized conduit and started pointing it around until I got the most bars on my receiver. Then I just stuck it in the ground and ran the coax that came with it into the eaves and down the wall in my computer room. One of these days I'll get around to doing something that looks a little prettier.

[ThaiLife]

I have been using the CAT CDMA since Dec 2008, This is a post I did back then....

For some time now I have been thinking of trying the CAT CDMA system , so after talking to the nearest CAT office

to confirm that if I took my Apple Mac to them , could they set up a MC727 modem on it , so I could see and test it on my iMac , to which they said yes , so I arrived at the CAT office and spoke to the manageress who had originally confirmed that yes they could set up a MC727 modem on my Mac

I then ask if an Engineer could set up a MC727 modem on my Mac, which I had took with me , Sorry but the engineer has not come to work to day, he is sick said the manageress. As its a long way to the CAT office I was not too pleased and asked if another engineer was available to set up the modem on my Mac, no sorry only one engineer knows how to set up a Mac computer.

The manageress then said go and get your Mac and I can try and set the modem up for you , what do I have to loose I thought , so off to the pickup and back to the CAT office carrying a huge box containing the iMac 24 inch , well the whole office went quiet when the Mac was taken out of its box and placed on the manageress desk, I could tell by her look and the large crowd gathering around the Mac , that things were going to get interesting from this point on. I booted up the Mac and loaded the MC727 software CD , it was recognized ok, and the manageress followed the on screen setup , at first the iMac would not connect to the internet, I then thought does the modem have to be activated on the CAT system to allow the internet connection?, I pointed this out to the manageress who gave the normal Thai smile , and she went over to a computer and activated the Modem connection number. Well after trying for 10 minuets to no avail. the manageress picked up her mobile phone and called some one in Bangkok, who talked her through the connection settings , and finally the internet connection was made. I then ask if I could do a internet connection speed test .. Ok no problem , so these are the results of the MC727 modem connected to an iMac 2.8 24 inch running 10.5.5 situated at a main CAT office ( with a very large Tower at the back )

1st test = Down 1049

Up 273

2nd test = Down 1358

Up = 257

3rd test = Down = 1422

Up = 306

4th test = Down 1180

Up = 280

5th test = Down 1371

Up = 281

So I packed up the Mac , and told the manageress that I would now pay for antenna ( 1,800 Baht ) and return home and install it on my roof , and then return a few days later to collect the MC727 modem for one days try test ( as previously agreed ) , if the modem did not produce good results over the day’s test

period I would return it and be given my money back . The manageress knowing I have to do a long round trip

to the CAT office , then offered a new option, I pay for the MC727 modem , pay for the antenna , take the modem home , install the roof antenna and test out the modem , and if it does not give good results return the modem and the antenna to the CAT office for a full refund and I had ” 5 ” days to test every thing out , I agreed to this offer

Now ive been trying out the MC727 modem on my iMac 2.8 Intel 10.5.5 , the modem is connected to the new external roof antenna , purchased from the CAT office . The roof antenna is well above the roof height of my house and pointing in the general direction of the nearest CAT tower which is I would guess about 3-4 Km away. I booted up the Mac and then plugged in the modem , remembering to use the same USB point on the iMac as the modem was originally set up at the CAT office, then as arranged I called the CAT manageress to let her know I was ready to try the new modem, She then activated it and asked I telephone her back later to let her know how things were going.

The iMac recognized the MC727 modem settings that had been previously set up in the CAT office, and connected

to the internet with no problem and I did some surfing.

I then decided to shut down the iMac and re boot again , to see if the modem would connect again a second time, this time the Mac again recognized the modem setting , but would not connect to the internet , as I knew that the modem settings were ok , and as I did not want to re set any thing, I thought there must be something else not allowing the modem to connect to the internet other than the set up , so I decided to shut down the Mac again and re boot it , this time the again the modem was recognized by the Mac , but it would not connect to the internet .

so this time before re booting the Mac I un plugged the modem , and then re booted up. I let the Mac start up with out the modem being connected , then once the Mac was up and running I inserted the modem into the same USB socket and tried to connect to the internet , this time the connection was made ok, so it seems at this stage I have to remove the modem from the Mac when its been shut down, and then the next time I re boot the Mac I just let it run , then insert the modem , which then connects to the internet every time, with out a problem.

After working out how to connect to the internet every time , I then decided to do some internet connection speed tests using several international test web sites , this is the results over a 24 hour period , the tests were made through out the day .

Download / Upload

1951 / 297

1827 / 195

1780 / 253

1626 / 266

1559 / 260

1541 / 239

1518 / 247

1513 / 276

1505 / 251

1501 / 277

1453 / 282

1452 / 251

1438 / 247

1429 / 291

1420 / 247

1397 /248

1387 / 320

1351 / 317

1348 / 238

1334 / 225

1025 / 266

giving an average of 1461 / 253

I have tested downloading some large files, and viewing Youtube videos etc with very good results, but not as yet done any Uploading.

I have Tweaked the roof antenna by altering the direction it points to in a 30˚ angled arch , this movement did seem to fine the best position .

At the moment The modem has been connected to the internet continually over 24 hours , and its not as yet disconnected it self in any way, and the speeds have been fairly constant .

So far my only complaint is I will have to un plug the modem every time I switch off my iMac, there may be a fix some where for this problem, but I really don’t want to up set the current settings that seem to be doing so well .

The CAT office offers a Month Un limited option , ( No contract ) at 790 Baht + Tax , the bill is sent to your house and you can pay at most banks or post offices. to stop using the service they require you tell them One month in advance.

So at this time I am very pleased , and compared to my past dial up connection speeds I am in internet heaven .

Not much has changed since then , I have replaced the original external antenna 75 Ω coaxial cable with a better 50 Ω cable . As the other posters say, the key factor is how far are you away from a CAT tower, The other thing that improved the signal reception was to buy the correct small adapter cable and plug, that plugs into the MC727 USB Modem, the original one that I purchased from CAT did not fit too tight and I had to put an elastic band around it to hold it in, so I purchased the correct one from Ebay. I did later take my netbook with MC727 and the external roof antenna plugged into to it, up on top of my roof, I then rotated the antenna while watching the signal bar readout on the netbook , once I had the best signal I then fixed the external roof antenna in place for good.

I would say if you can find some one who has a CAT CDMA USB modem and a laptop, ask them to come over your way to see just how the signal strength is , ive now taken my netbook and the MC727 to Two other guy's places to check out the signal reception.

The original problem plugging the modem into the iMac has corrected its self, theres been a few times when Ive had to disconnect the modem, when the speeds went down, just un plugging and plugging back in the modem seems to correct the problem most times, over all I am still happy .

TL

[Somnambulist]

Hi all,

My fiancee and I went to the Tesco/Lotus CAT booth this morning. They've discontinued the MC727, and it's replacement, the EC226 USB modem, is not antennae compatible. The guy said CAT got tired of complaints from customers who went to the expense of installing an antennae and didn't like the result.

It is white, about twice as wide as the MC727, and is on a 6 inch or so chord, so it'll be dangling off your laptop if you have to pick it up.

They are also flogging the X720 Express Card, with a flip up design. The guy says it only works with laptops. Why would that be. Bluetooth only? Whatever.

Anyway, the guy took our number and said he'd have a tech guy call us back and for a 200 baht fee come to our new house to test our location but he never called. He was also supposed to try and find us an MC727.

So, now I'm looking for an MC727 (I found out from locals today that I'm probably only 3 or 4 kilometers from a tower with no mountains in between). I wonder if someone could point me to a store in Bangkok that would take an order online for one.

[loong]

Hi all,

My fiancee and I went to the Tesco/Lotus CAT booth this morning. They've discontinued the MC727, and it's replacement, the EC226 USB modem, is not antennae compatible. The guy said CAT got tired of complaints from customers who went to the expense of installing an antennae and didn't like the result.

It is white, about twice as wide as the MC727, and is on a 6 inch or so chord, so it'll be dangling off your laptop if you have to pick it up.

They are also flogging the X720 Express Card, with a flip up design. The guy says it only works with laptops. Why would that be. Bluetooth only? Whatever.

Anyway, the guy took our number and said he'd have a tech guy call us back and for a 200 baht fee come to our new house to test our location but he never called. He was also supposed to try and find us an MC727.

So, now I'm looking for an MC727 (I found out from locals today that I'm probably only 3 or 4 kilometers from a tower with no mountains in between). I wonder if someone could point me to a store in Bangkok that would take an order online for one.

Hi Somnambulist,

please take a look at my posts in this thread re the replacement for the MC727 also about the X720

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Whats-Cat-Cd...72#entry3059772